Major League Baseball (MLB) Commissioner Rob Manfred expressed a positive view of the move to the home of the MLB Oakland Athletics.
According to the Associated Press on the 25th (Korean time), Commissioner Manfred said, “I’m sorry to the Oakland fans” over the Athletics’ plans to move to Las Vegas, but “I think the Athletics can build a more competitive team in Nevada.”
Oakland has been discussing with the city of Oakland about building a new stadium instead of the aging Oakland Coliseum baseball field, but it has not come to fruition.
Then, last week, the Oakland club signed a contract for a 49-acre (198,296㎡) site located on the Strip near Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. The Oakland club will build a retractable dome that can accommodate 30,000 to 35,000 spectators. The plan is to start construction next year and complete the relocation in 2027.
Commissioner Manfred said that when the Oakland Coliseum lease expires next year, Oakland discussed whether it would be possible for Oakland to play games in the same stadium as its Triple-A team, the Las Vegas Aviators. “I believe the stadium can be shared (until the move),” he said, “but Auckland’s relocation schedule is still uncertain.”
He also denied the Auckland mayor’s allegation that the club had used negotiations with the City of Auckland as a tool to gain bargaining power in the relocation.
If the move is completed, all major professional sports teams will disappear from Auckland.
The Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL) were the Oakland Raiders until 2019, but they left Oakland and changed their team name. The Golden State Warriors of the American Professional Basketball Association (NBA) also used the Oakland Arena as their home stadium until 2019, but moved to the Chase Center in San Francisco, California.
Earlier, Commissioner Manfred said he would like to expand the current 30 club system to 32. When the relocation of this hometown is completed, there is a prospect that MLB will begin to expand the league.
He repeated on the 24th (local time) that he would discuss league expansion, hoping that a solution would come out that would allow the Tampa Bay Rays to maintain their hometown.안전놀이터
It is known that Salt Lake City, Utah, Nashville, Tennessee, Portland, Oregon, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Montreal, Quebec, Canada are also participating in discussions to attract MLB teams.
Commissioner Manfred, who said he hopes the expansion of the league will lead to entry into Mexico, insisted that discussions have not progressed toward entry into Mexico yet.